By bethlehem



Sept. 29, 1931. M ELY RAIL TURNING DEVICE original Filed March 15, 1925 2 Sheets-Sheet l Sept. 29, 1931. H. M. ELY

I RAIL TURNING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Original Filed March 15, 1926 l I I I r x l r fibtoz. we

' section laswell as increasedlength of railsr HAROLD Reissued Sept. 29, 19,31

M. ELY, -DEcEAsEn LATE or HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, BY BETH-LEHEM ,STEEL ("JOIMEANY, F BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNEE BAIL TURNING :DEVICE ong-mal N 1,775, s51'aatej11v september 1e, 1930, semi No. e4,7a o, mea Marcil 15, 192s. Application for reissue leajrebruary e, 1931. serial No. 514,002.

articles which are heavy and have one dimension much greater than the others. A rail,

for example, is heavy and its length: is much greater than its cross sectional dimensions.

Heretofore it has been customary to employ manual labor to'turn over rails about l,their longi'tudinal'axes from one position to another so that they are correctly positioned under va gag press for straightening. Howy ever', owing to the demand for increased cross the handling operation' has become an extremely onerous task even though it is the the general practice to increase the number of operators handling therails as the Weight of rails increase. It is, therefore, the object y of the invention to provide a device for mechanically turning a rolled shape to its cor- "rect position in a ga press.

' 'A further object o the invention yis to provide anovel*` means for mounting a deviceM for mechanically handling a rolled shape so `:that said device is lfree, to automatically adjust itself in a vertical plane so as'not to of the article be- The apparatus stated generally comprises a swinging framefreely mounted on'a shaft C `Which is'suitably journaled in brackets supj ported on a base. The latter is located at the `side of the gianr press, lor may be formed as part thereof, and positioned lso that the central axis of a rim pinion, rotatably mounted inthe frame, is in substantial alignment with the path of travel of the article, such as a. rail, being fed to the gag press. The rim gear is provided with inwardly projecting lugs which engage the rail between the under surface of the head portion and the upper surface of the flange portion.V The rim gear is geared 'toa pinion ixedly mounted on the.

aforementioned shaft and the latter is operatively Connected to a reversible motor.

The novel features will be moreI fully straighteningrails and the likeyand may be of any vWell known type, but this has not been 'shown in detail because such detailsdo not' form part of the invention.

A bed plate 11 is positioned at the side of fthe gag press and supports a] reversible motor 12 and a pair of trunnion brackets 13. A shaft 14 is journaled in the brackets 13 and is provided at one end with a fixed pulley 15 which is operably connected, through the medium of a belt 16, to a pulley xed to the armature shaftvof the motor 12.. A frame 17 is rotatably mounted on the shaft 14 and extended laterally therefrom, normally in a substantiallyk horizontal plane. A rim gear 18 is rotatably mounted in the extending end ofthe frame17and is provided with inwardly projecting lugs 19. The latter extend towards each other and are spaced apart a distance to allow the free passage of the web portions Aof a rail to the gag press, but, however, are in sufficiently close proximity so that the side faces 20' and 21 of said lugs engagefthe undersurfa'ce of the rail head and the up er face of the rail flange, respectively,l e lugs 19may be formed as an integral part of the rim gear, but, preferably vthey are detachably mounted on pads 22, formed on the inside of said gear and fastened thereto by suitable means such as the bolts shown in Fig. 2.

By having the lugs 19 detachable their size and forni may be changed as desired to suit the siZe and shape of the particular structural unit to be handled and in this manner the device may be easily adapted to handle a large range of sizes and variety of shapes. The frame 17' ispreferably made in two parts 23 and`24, each having flanges 25 which are .bolted together and are Vprovided Witlran opening 26. The rim gear is provided with cylindrical bearing portions 27, on each side thereof, which engage the openings 26 formed in the frame 17 and is thus rotatably supported bythe latter.

A pinion 28 is keyed to the shaft 14 and an intermediate pinion 29 rotatably mounted on vtheframe 17 meshes with pinion l28A and also with the teeth formed on the exterior periphery of the rim gear 18. It will be seen that thelatter is operatively connected to the motor 12 through the medium of the pinions 29,

28 and the belt 16 and by operating'the motor the rim gear may be caused to'be rotated .in either direction. i

k firmly held in brackets 32 which arebolted to and extendlaterally from the bed platell. The plungerBOis supported on a coll spring 33 mounted in the bore of the member 31 beneath said plunger, and depended from the latter is a rodY 34 which extends axially through .said spring and through an opening vin the bottom wall ofsaid member. Y The'extendingend of the'rod 34 is threadedy and is engaged by a nut 35. The latter is adjustable on said rod and reacts against the lower Y face ofthe member 31 to change the lnormal i upward position of the plunger. Normally the frame 17 is supported on the plungerBO andthe lugs 19 are-disposed in such a posivbetween said lugs as a v'rail isiadjv'ancedfby the roller train fshown in broken linesv to the gag press. y, U i v A weight 37 is provided-to counterbalance the frame 17 and is connected to the latter by means of a cable passingovera pulley 39 Y which is rotatably mounted on the xed` brackets 40. The frame 17 being counterbalanced may be easily moved upwardly above the axis v ofthe shaft 14 andbe positioned, as shown by the dotted liney outline 41 in Fig. 2, so thatit VVdoesnot interfere with-the handling ofthe lighter sections when it is Vdesired to handle such sections manually. i ,Y y .In the operation of the rail turning device,

n, assuming `the frame 17 to be in its horizontal j ends of the lugs 19. To turn the rail lover Yin i" order that one orthe other of the sides, head the pressure is applied to straighten therail,

position as shown in Fig. 2, the rail is fedto` the gag press by the roller train36, the web portion of the rail passing between the orlbase `restson the table of the` press so that the proper face is presented to the anvil when P37 softhatritflis'free to automatically adjust itself in the verticalplane and does not interfere with turning of the rail, and furthermore,

does riot" resist the flexing of the rail when the latter isbeing straightened in the press. It will be'seen 'from the' foregoing descripftion'thatthere is provided a device for mechanically `turning over a rail andthe like about its longitudinal axis andf which isvfreelymountedso thatrit does not interfere with theV turning of. the rail rand y also. does not resist the iexingof the rail whilethe latter is being straightened in the gag press.

l Whilethere is shown Vand described a device for handling rails it is manifest that such a device'may easily be adapted to handle other structural shapes such as for example I- beams, H-beams, channels, angles, etc.A v

.'Whi-le the. invention has been shown in vbut one form, it will be obvious to those skilledin the artthatit is not so limited` but is `susceptible of various other changesfand, modifications without; departing from the spirit there- Having thus .described they invention, what.I vis claimed as new. and desired tobe secured by Y Letters Patent is :V

1.l r*A device for. handling articles comprising a swinging frame, meansl to support said Y Y ,Y frameincludind a shaft Vanannular member tion that they web portion ofthe rail passes- D adapted to Iengage the articles tobe handled,

- means interposed between saidshaftand .said

.f 2. A device :for han to supportsaid-frameincluding a shaft', an annular `member rotatably, mounted on said s frame,teeth formed on saidV member,a pinionxedtovsaid shaftrand in ,geared relation to said teeth, means projecting from said' member adapted to engage therail to be handled, and-means for rotating said shaft.

.A=device for handling rails and like ob- Jects comprising a swinging frame, means to .supportsaid frame including a shaft and a yieldable member, means `mounted on said frame adapted to engage the object to be handled, and vmeansgfor actuating the last mentlonedmeans.

4. device-for handling rails and-,like ob- 4 )ects comprisinga swingingv frame, means to `support said frame including a shaft anda yieldable member, a member rotatablymount-y ed on said frame, gear teeth formed on said 13oy l last mentioned member, a lug extending from the latter adapted to engage the object to he handled, a pinion mounted on said shaft and in geared relation to said teeth, and means for rotating said pinion.

5. A device for handling rails comprising a swinging frame, means to support said frame including a shaft and a yieldable member, a rim gear rotatably mounted on said frame, a lug extending from said rim gear, a pinion mounted on said shaft, an idler gear mounted on said frame in geared relation to said pinion and said rim gear, and means to rotate said pinion.

6. A device for handling articles comprising a swinging frame, a support for said frame including a shaft and a balancing means, a member mounted on said frame adapted to engage the article to be handled, and means to actuate said member.

7. In a device for manipulating heavy articles, a frame, means rotatably mounted in the frame for engaging an article, and means cooperative With said frame and put in operation during manipulation of an article to automatically eli'ect a swinging adjustment of said frame.

8. In a device for manipulating a heavy article, a support, a frame pivotally mounted in the support to swing in an approximately vertical plane during manipulation of an article, and article engaging means mounted in the frame to move in a substantially vertical plane for manipulating an article.

9.. In a device for turning extended, heavy articles, a frame, means movably mounted inV the frame for engaging an article, and means cooperative with said frame and put in operation during manipulation of an article to automatically effect vertical adjustment of said frame.

10. In a device for t turning heavy, extended articles, a support, a frame mounted on the support to automatically swing in a plane at a substantial angle to the length of the article being turned during the turning of such article, and an article engaging structure mounted in the frame to rotate in a plane at a substantial angle to the length of the ar'- ticle being turned.

l1. In combination With a straightening machine, effective for applying a force on thev side of an article tobe straightened, means for turning the article, said turning means being yieldably mounted.

l2. In combination With a straightening machine effective for applying a force. on the side of an article to be straightened, means for turning the article, and means for yieldably urging the turning means to va desired position and a stop for limiting the action of such means.

13. In combination With a straightening machine effective for applying a force on the side of an article to be straightened, means 

